Speedlight Help, Please

Hey Everyone,

I need some help. I'm looking for a speedlight for my mother. She has a Nikon D3100. I am looking at the Nikon SB-600 and the Nikon SB-700.

She'll need a speedlight that will be mounted on her camera for the majority of her photos. She takes a lot of High School Sporting event photos, so sometimes they are moving fast, other times its photos of golfers...

I'm not familiar with all of the speedlight vocabulary, which is making it difficult for me to pick one out. Could anyone please help me? Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks for your time!

I shoot with a D7100 and have both the SB700 and a Yongnuo YN-565EX I-TTL Flash Speedlite For Nikon and I highly suggest that you buy the Yongnuo. The SB700 costs $326.95 and the Yongnuo costs $84.

Amazon.com: Yongnuo YN-565EX I-TTL Flash Speedlite For Nikon Version Nikon D7000 D5100 D5000 D3100 D3000: Camera & Photo

There are many of us here that use the Yongnuo and everyone I know that has one would buy it again.

You could buy three of these and still have money left over

And welcome to the forum.

Another question is What lens is she using for the sports shots?

Hey!!

Thank you so much for your help!! I'm sorry for the delayed response, I had to find out what lens she uses. She has 2:

- Nikon DX AF-S Nikkor 55-300mm 1:4.5-5.6GED
- Nikon DX AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6G

i have no idea what this means, but that is what she told me.

My first questions to her is finding out what she will be specifically shooting. What type of sporting events will be shot.
If she is looking at freezing action, then she's probably going to want to go with the strongest flash she can get (regardless of manufacturer). Secondly a faster lens with a wider/constant aperture would be necessary as I never found anything that would be on Nikon's low end to be decent enough to capture action if there is not enough light.
Lastly, I feel that she will still miss out on a lot of action using the D3100, while I do not knock what it can do. I find it very limited and too slow to catch more active sports (football/basketball/soccer/hockey) where the lag of each shot can be a make or break image.

skene said:

I never found anything that would be on Nikon's low end to be decent enough to capture action if there is not enough light.

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I have both of the aforementioned lenses.
The 55-300 lens is good for everything but moving objects. Sometimes I can get a bird or the dog if I can predict where it's gonna go or if the subject isn't moving fast.
Speed up the subject and getting the image becomes a challenge.
For the most part the AF is too slow for sports. In addition,the lens has a habit of not finding a far off subject unless going past 100mm then focusing.
It the photographer knows these quirks then he/she can compensate to a point.
As for low light, I use it outdoors only. I have other lenses more suitable for indoor low light conditions.

For most of what I use the lens for it's great.

So much has been written about the 18-55 kit lens I won't add to it here.

Don Kuykendall said:

I shoot with a D7100 and have both the SB700 and a Yongnuo YN-565EX I-TTL Flash Speedlite For Nikon and I highly suggest that you buy the Yongnuo. The SB700 costs $326.95 and the Yongnuo costs $84.

Click to expand...

I have both of those flashes as well (well, a 568EX, close enough) and I too reach for the Yongnuo over the SB-700. Mainly because I like it better.

The fact it costs 1/3 of what the Nikon version costs is just a huge plus.

2 x yongnuo's in my bag, the 468ii I-TTL and the 560 Mk.3 (Mk.4 is now available). fantastic flashes that are cheap and reliable.

Got to go for the Yongnuo's too ! I am buying 4 (Yes 4) Mark 4's and a Hotshoe Trigger to control them for £230. THat is the same price as 1 SB-700

The Yongnuo's are a great piece of kit !